The invention concerns a process for dismantling buried unsheltered equipment at risk of radioactive contamination, particularly the kind that extends in a straight line, such as shut-down effluent pipes.
As part of a general radioactive-contamination risk protection policy, waste and equipment that may be contaminated must be eliminated when the equipment is taken off line and the areas it occupied must be made available for other uses. Indeed, even when pipes are buried in the ground, they may eventually deteriorate and spread contamination by infiltration and/or irrigation, which is very difficult to contain.
Generally, a state of noncontamination or decontamination means a state in which the radioactivity of a material is below a predetermined threshold, for example, one stipulated by law.